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Seasonal Cover Deciles - Landsat, JRSRP Algorithm Version 3.0, Australia Coverage 

Ver: 3.0
Status of Data: onGoing
Update Frequency: quarterly
Security Classification: unclassified
Record Last Modified: 2025-12-02
Viewed 394 times
Accessed 113 times
Dataset Created: 2022-03-28
Dataset Published: 2022-12-07
Data can be accessed from the following links:
HTTPPoint-of-truth metadata URLHTTPCloud Optimised GeoTIFFs - Seasonal Green Cover DecilesHTTPCloud Optimised GeoTIFFs - Seasonal Total Cover DecilesWMScover_deciles_v3HTTPLandscape Data VisualiserHTTPro-crate-metadata.json
How to cite this collection:
Joint Remote Sensing Research Program & Department of the Environment, T. (2022). Seasonal Cover Deciles - Landsat, JRSRP Algorithm Version 3.0, Australia Coverage. Version 3.0. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. Dataset. https://portal.tern.org.au/metadata/169dbb12-846f-4536-9dab-e31378d16b41 
Two fractional cover decile products, green cover and total cover, are currently produced from the historical timeseries of seasonal fractional cover images across Australia, available for each 3-month calendar season. These products compare, at the per-pixel level, the level of cover for the specific season of interest against the long term cover for that same season. For each pixel, all cover values for the relevant seasons within a baseline period (1990 - 2020) are classified into deciles. The cover value for the pixel in the season of interest is then classified according to the decile in which it falls.
This product is based upon the JRSRP Fractional Cover 3.0 algorithm. 
Credit
We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. 
Purpose
These decile datasets are an excellent way of identifying areas of low or high cover, relative to what is typical for that location and season. 
Lineage
Summary of processing:
Seasonal composite of fractional cover > baseline statistics > seasonal cover deciles. 
Method DocumentationData not provided.
Procedure Steps

1. 

Rankings:
The seasonal fractional cover timeseries for the period 1990 - 2020 is used as a baseline. Every season is ranked against every available seasonal value within the baseline period, for the corresponding season, on a per-pixel basis.
Rankings are expressed as deciles, so a cover value which falls within the bottom 10% of values in the baseline period is given as decile 1, and a cover value which falls in the top 10% is given as decile 10. Two versions of this are created – one which ranks total cover (green + non-green), and one which ranks only the green fraction.
Because the seasonal composites are used, the data are representative of the season, and robust against outliers. The baseline period is sampled evenly across the whole period, so there is no bias towards the years with more imagery available. 

2. 

Example:
For example, a total cover value for Spring 2013 is ranked against the total cover in all the Spring images in the baseline period. A green cover value in Spring 2013 is ranked against the green cover fractions in all the Spring images in the baseline period. 

3. 

Seasonal fractional cover process:
Refer to the Methods section in Seasonal Fractional Cover - Landsat, JRSRP Algorithm Version 3.0, Australia Coverage. 

Australia
Temporal Coverage
From 1990-01-01 to on going 
Spatial Resolution

Distance of 30 Meters

Vertical Extent

Data not provided.

Data Quality Assessment Scope
1) The input imagery was processed to level L1T by the USGS. Geodetic accuracy of the product depends on the image quality and the accuracy, number, and distribution of the ground control points.
2) The fractional cover model was compared to samples drawn from approximately 4000 field reference sites. 
Data Quality Report
Data not provided. 
Data Quality Assessment Outcome
1) The USGS aims to provide image-to-image registration with an accuracy of 12 m. Refer to the Landsat 8 Data Users Handbook for more detail.
2) The fractional cover model predicts the vegetation cover fractions with MAE/wMAPE/RMSE of:
bare - 6.9%/34.9%/14.5%
PV - 4.6%/37.9%/10.6%
NPV - 9.8%/25.2%/16.9%.
 
ANZSRC - FOR
Climate change impacts and adaptation
Environmental management
GCMD Sciences
BIOSPHERE - VEGETATION COVER
LAND SURFACE - LAND USE/LAND COVER
Horizontal Resolution
30 meters - < 100 meters
Parameters
photosynthetic vegetation fraction
vegetation area fraction
Platforms
LANDSAT-7
LANDSAT-8
LANDSAT-9
Temporal Resolution
Seasonal
Topic
environment
imageryBaseMapsEarthCover
Author
Joint Remote Sensing Research Program
Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, Queensland Government
Contact Point
Data Enquiries, Earth Observation and Social Sciences (EOSS)
Publisher
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Rights Holder
Joint Remote Sensing Research Program
Supplemental Information
Data are available as cloud optimised GeoTIFF (COG) files. COG files are easier and more efficient for users to access data corresponding to particular areas of interest without the need to download the data first. 
Resource Specific Usage
Data not provided. 
Environment Description
Data not provided. 
By Parent record
Seasonal Fractional Cover - Landsat, JRSRP Algorithm Version 3.0, Australia Coverage
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Please cite this dataset as {Author} ({PublicationYear}). {Title}. {Version, as appropriate}. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. Dataset. {Identifier}.